


The Pact

by my_mad_fatuation



Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 07:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13429875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_mad_fatuation/pseuds/my_mad_fatuation
Summary: Finn wants to win over Rae's affection, but he's not the only one. He'll have to compete if he wants a chance with Rae.





	The Pact

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an anonymous prompt over on tumblr: https://my-mad-fatuation.tumblr.com/post/167045373743/can-you-write-a-fic-which-rae-is-loved-by-two

“Oi, Finn.”

Finn turned around and saw Thomas coming towards him, so he stopped to let him catch up. “Hey,” he said.

“I wanted to talk to you,” said Thomas. He rested an arm on Finn’s shoulder, probably to assert that he was more powerful as the taller one of the pair.

“Talk,” said Finn.

“I noticed you getting pretty close with our girl, Rae, there at the party last night.”

“So?”

“So, I was just wondering… Did she say anything about me?”

“What?”

“It’s just, I’ve been trying to get her attention for a few weeks now, but it’s like she only sees me as one of her mates, y’know?”

Finn didn’t want to admit that he’d been feeling the exact same way. “She didn’t mention anything,” he said.

“Well, I’m thinking of asking her out, anyway,” said Thomas.

“You can’t!” Finn blurted without thinking.

“Why not?”

“I—I mean, you can’t just claim her like that,” he said. “What if—If someone else wanted to ask her out?”

“Like who?”

Finn lowered his head. He’d said too much already.

“Are you taking the piss, Nelson?” said Thomas. “ _You_ want to ask her out?”

“I dunno, maybe,” said Finn.

“Well, it was my idea first, so—”

“Was not!” he argued.

“I said it first!” Thomas said, pushing himself off of Finn’s shoulder.

“That doesn’t mean you have any claim to her over me!”

Thomas laughed heartily. “What makes you think you’d even stand a chance with her, when she could have me instead?”

“I do all right, okay?” said Finn, folding his arms. True, he wasn’t as tall as Thomas, or as _buff_ , and his hair wasn’t as long and silky-looking, and he didn’t have a million-watt smile, but still… He had to stand some chance, right?

“Look, if you really want a shot, why don’t we make a pact, yeah?” said Thomas.

“A pact?”

“Yeah. Like we agree to certain rules about going after her.”

“Such as?”

“I dunno off the top of my head. But we should probably get a third party to make the rules, so they’re fair, don’t you think?”

Finn considered this for a moment and then looked at him.

“Archie?” they both said at the same time.

***

“The official rules of the competition for Rae’s affection are as follows,” Archie began, standing at the end of the table at the chippy where Finn and Thomas were sitting, watching him. “Number one, you will each get three chances to hang out with her and convince her to pick you.”

Finn eyed Thomas warily, who was looking smug sitting across from him.

“Number two,” Archie continued, “you cannot spend any money on her on these supposed ‘dates.’ And number three, you can only make physical contact with her extremities. Arms, legs, those are fine. Hugging, kissing, and… intimate touching are all off-limits during the competition.”

“Hold on a second—” said Thomas, raising his hand like he was in school.

“I think that all sounds fair,” Finn cut in.

“You’re saying I can’t spend money on her _or_ put the moves on her?” Thomas asked. “What the hell am I supposed to do on our dates, then?”

“I guess you’ll have to give it more than five seconds of thought,” said Archie.

Thomas heaved a sigh. “Fine. It’s a deal, then.”

“Deal,” said Finn as he shook the other lad’s hand.

***

The battle for Rae’s heart had begun, and Finn was pretty confident about his odds. He already had a leg-up on Thomas, after the sleepover party. The talk he’d had with Rae that night was one of the best he’d ever had with anyone, and the bond they’d formed would set him apart, he thought.

Though it had been a week since the party and he had yet to be alone with her, he’d already developed a secret method of communicating with her, tracing letters on her hand or leg so that no one else would know what he was saying to her. She never laughed out loud, though, but he assumed that was just so she wouldn’t expose their secret.

When he saw Rae lying on the grass by herself, he thought it would be a good time to talk to her one on one, and maybe ask her “out,” so to speak. (Since he couldn’t spend money on her, he figured he’d just invite her ‘round to his house.)

He sat down on the grass beside her and stretched out to lie down next to her at an angle, so his legs would cross over hers. She had her eyes closed like she was deep in thought.

“Rae,” he said as he watched her contentedly. “Rae, what are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking…” she said, slowly turning her head towards him, “how I’m gonna tell you that you smell of B.O.”

He laughed. “I’m sure you’ll find something to say,” he said. “Actually, I wanted to ask you…”

“Yeah?”

“It’s just, I was wondering if you—”

“Rae!” Chloe said, appearing as if out of nowhere. “I need to talk to ya.” She reached down to help pull Rae to her feet and swept her away.

“—wanted to come over tomorrow…” he muttered to himself.

He waited for a little while, but when Rae wasn’t back after five minutes, he went looking for her. He was due home any minute now, and he really had to ask her, before he lost his nerve.

“Right, I’m off,” he said as he caught up to her and Chloe. “Rae, come ‘round mine tomorrow if you want.”

“Why?” Rae asked.

“Er, ‘cos I’ve got some really crap reggae I wanna show ya,” he said jokingly. “And you can give me some personal hygiene tips.”

“All right,” she said with mock derision.

He smiled before heading off. This was going to work.

***

“Chloe,” Finn said when he answered his front door the next day, “what are you doing here?”

“I’m here to listen to some reggae,” said Chloe. “I hope that’s all right. Thomas said it wouldn’t be a problem ‘cos you invited him, too, but he couldn’t make it.”

_Damn you, Thomas!_ Finn thought to himself.

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” he said to Chloe. “I just wasn’t expectin’ ya, is all. But come in, come in. My room is upstairs on the left; I’m just going to wait down here for Rae, all right?”

“Yeah, fine,” she said with a smile as she stepped inside.

This was not going to work.

***

So much for some quality alone time with Rae. Finn had to come up with a better plan to see her on his own if he was going to win her over. That meant inviting her on a date when no one else was around to sabotage it. And it seemed like he would get his chance to ask her when Chloe went to the bathroom.

Rae was standing over by the records in his room, so he put on her least favourite song, “Spaceman” by Babylon Zoo, just to annoy her. He hoped she would find it funny, and it appeared that she did. This was it.

“Do you think you’d feel up to going for a walk with me tomorrow afternoon?” he asked her. “Like in the park or summat.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because…” he said, and then he picked up her hand and started tracing letters onto her palm. I… W…A…N…T… Y…O…U… T…O. he wrote.

Smiling, she replied, “I would, yeah, but I’ve already made plans to hang out with Thomas tomorrow. Sorry.”

“Oh,” he said dejectedly. “Okay. Maybe the day after that, then?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe.”

***

Finn hated that he had to wait two days to see Rae again. But she agreed to meet him in the park the day after her _date_ with Thomas. Finn wasn’t ballsy enough to sabotage Thomas’ date the way he had; he was just going to have to win Rae over the old fashioned way. Whatever that meant.

“So,” he said as she walked up to him, where he was waiting for her against a tree. “How’d it go yesterday?”

“How did what go?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Oh, er, you said you were too busy hanging out with Thomas, so I was just wondering how that went,” he said.

“Fine, I guess,” she said. “We went bowling. I kicked his ass.”

Finn forced a smile. “Cool,” he said, though really he was thinking about what a cheater Thomas was. He wasn’t allowed to spend money on her, like taking her bowling!

“Er, Finn,” Rae said, taking a step back from him. “You’ve got a bee on you.”

“What?” He started looking around frantically but couldn’t see it.

“It’s on your sleeve,” she said, still backing up. “I’d swat it away for you, but I’m allergic.”

When he finally spotted the thing near his shoulder, he went to swat at it but it stung him in the arm first. He swore under his breath as the bee flew away.

“Oh no, did it get you?” she asked, keeping her distance for the moment.

“Yeah,” he said as he pulled up his sleeve.

She came up to him to inspect the site of the injury. “It doesn’t look like it left the stinger, but you should probably come to my house and let my mum look at it.”

Finn followed Rae back to her house so that her mother could treat his wound, which he found to be thoroughly embarrassing. He could feel this competition slipping out of his hands.

***

“I thought we had a deal,” Finn said to Thomas when he saw him at the pub, before the others arrived.

“What are you talking about?” Thomas replied.

“We agreed that we wouldn’t spend money on our dates with Rae, and you took her bowling!”

“Actually, we agreed not spend money _on her_ on our dates, and since she paid for herself, I didn’t technically break the rules.”

“Except that you sent Chloe to my house when you knew it was supposed to be my time with Rae,” said Finn. “So I should get another turn.”

“There was nothing in the rules that said we couldn’t try to ruin each other’s dates,” said Thomas.

“Fine, if that’s the way you want to play it, then that’s how we’ll play it.”

***

“Hiya, Rae,” Finn said when he called Rae on the phone the next day. “I was just wondering if you wanted to do something tonight.”

“Oh, I’ve sort of got plans to go to the cinema with Thomas,” she replied.

“Really? That’s so weird, because that’s what I was about to ask if you wanted to go there with me,” he said.

“Well, I mean, you could always tag along, right?”

“You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not,” she said. “We’re meeting there at seven.”

“Great. See you then.”

***

Finn was delighted when he saw the look of annoyance on Thomas’ face as they approached each other at the cinema.

“What are you doing here?” Thomas asked through gritted teeth.

“Oh, Rae invited me to see the film with you guys,” said Finn. “Isn’t that nice of her?”

“You’d better piss off before she gets here or I’m gonna—”

“You’re gonna what? Hit me?” He laughed.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” Rae asked when she caught up to the pair of them.

“Nothing,” said Thomas, still scowling at Finn.

“Clearly I’m missing something,” she said.

“No, he’s right,” said Finn as he held back more laughter. “It’s nothing.”

***

The boys sat on either side of Rae, each trying to get her attention throughout the film by whispering in her ear or, in Finn’s case, tracing letters on the top of her leg.

In fact, he’d just written her a rather humourous—though short—response to one of the film’s lines of dialogue, and it made her laugh out loud.

“What’s going on?” Thomas whispered irritably, leaning forward in his seat so he could look at the two of them.

“Nothing,” Finn whispered back. He had to try not to laugh, as well.

“Clearly I’m missing something,” said Thomas.

“No, it’s really nothing,” Rae replied, though she exchanged glances with Finn like she still found it really amusing.

All in all, things were going pretty well for Finn.

***

He pulled up in front of Rae’s house one evening in his dad’s car and hopped out to knock on her door. He was glad that she answered the door and not her mum.

“Hey,” he said when she appeared in the doorway. “I was wondering if you wanted to go for a drive with me.”

“A drive where?” she asked.

“Just a drive. Out in the countryside, maybe.”

“Okay… But I have to be back by midnight,” she said.

“Otherwise the car turns into a pumpkin.”

“What?”

“Joke. That was a joke.”

“Oh, right,” she said awkwardly. “Hah.”

This was not going well, Finn thought. “So, shall we?” he added, opening his arms in the direction of the car.

“Sure.”

***

“I have an idea that’s a bit trite, but I think we should do it,” said Finn as he drove through the countryside with Rae.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“We should pull over and sit on the hood of the car to look at the stars,” he said, glancing over at her briefly to gauge her reaction.

She laughed. “Why?”

“I dunno,” he replied. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Okay, I suppose,” she said.

“Cool, okay,” he said. “I just need to find some place to pull over…”

“How about right here?”

“This is a field.”

“So?”

He looked around like he was checking to see if there was anyone nearby to see them, but it seemed like there wasn’t. They hadn’t spotted another car in miles.

“Okay, yeah,” he said, pulling over into the empty field, just enough that he was off the road.

“You got any blankets or anything?” Rae asked as they got out of the car.

“Er, why?”

“To sit on the car. So we don’t get dirt on us.”

Finn went to look in the boot. “Doesn’t look like I have any,” he said. “Guess we’ll have to handle some dirt.”

“I suppose there are worse things in the world,” she said.

He helped her onto the hood of the car and then climbed up himself.

“So,” she began as she cozied up to him, “are you going to try to impress me with your knowledge of the solar system, then?”

“Of course,” he replied. “See that roundish white thing in the sky over there? That’s the moon.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Yeah, that’s all I know.”

“Impressive.”

“Yes, well, I am quite gifted,” he joked.

“I can see that,” she said with a laugh. She rested her head against his shoulder so he leaned his head against hers as well.

“Can I ask you something?” he said after a moment.

“You can ask me absolutely anything,” she replied. “But I can’t promise that I’ll answer.”

“What do you think of Thomas?” he asked.

“What do I think of him?” she said. “I dunno. He’s all right, I guess.”

“Yeah, he’s fine, but do you, you know, fancy him or anything?”

“Why are you even asking me that?”

“I was just curious. You’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately.”

“More than usual?” she said.

“Maybe.”

“Well, no, I don’t fancy him. There’s someone else.”

“There is?” He felt like he was going to be sick. If there was yet another contender in the battle for Rae’s heart, then he—

She laughed a little and then started tracing letters on the top of his thigh. Y…E…S.

He lifted his head away from hers so that he could turn and look at her. “You mean…?”

She lifted her head as well and nodded.

“So I win?” he said.

“Win?” she asked.

“Oh, er, yeah… The thing is, Thomas and I have been sort of competing to get you to like us,” he said slowly, like he was just realizing how stupid it sounded as he said it.

“You’ve been competing?” She did not sound impressed.

“I mean, just a little,” he said. “Like we agreed to each get three dates with you to try and convince you to pick one of us and—”

“That… That is so manipulative!” she said as she leaned away from him. “Is this why both of you have been hanging out with me so much lately? These were _dates_? Without me agreeing to them being dates?”

“Not _dates_ , exactly, just opportunities to—”

“To try and trick me into liking you?” she asked.

“It sounds bad when you put it like that,” he said. “But I don’t—”

“Take me home, please,” she said, slipping down off the car.

“But, Rae—”

“Home. Now.”

***

“We screwed up,” Finn said to Thomas when he showed up at the taller boy’s house the next day.

“What are you talking about?” Thomas asked.

“Rae. We screwed up with Rae.”

“I’m still not following.”

“I told her about our competition and—”

“Wait, you told her? How dumb are you?”

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” said Finn. “But she’s really pissed off about it. We screwed up.”

“No, buddy,” said Thomas. “ _You_ screwed up.”

“We were both in on this deal, so she’s upset with both of us, I think.”

“I just don’t understand why you thought it was a good idea to tell her.”

“Because… She kind of picked me…” Finn said quietly.

“You’re joking.”

“No, she told me—Well, sort of told me,” he added. “She strongly implied it, anyway.”

“Oh, so you’re full of it, then,” said Thomas.

“Come on, I think we need to apologize to her.”

“Fine.”

***

“And so,” Finn said to Rae as he and Thomas sat across from her at the chippy, “we’d like to say that we’re both really sorry that we went behind your back to try and get you to like one of us. It’s just that we both really fancy ya and it made us competitive, I guess.”

“Yeah, we didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” Thomas added. “But since I know you like Finn better, can I just say that, in his defence, it was my idea to do this whole competition pact thing.”

“Yes, but I went along with it, so I’m as much to blame, and I do apologize—”

“It’s all right,” said Rae. “I get it. I didn’t like how scheme-y it was, but I sort of understand where you’re coming from, after thinking about it for a while. So I’ve decided to forgive you—both of you.”

“Thanks, Rae.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Now, Thomas,” she continued, “would you excuse us so I can talk to Finn alone for a second?”

“Oh, er, sure, yeah,” Thomas said as he got up. “I’ll just wait outside until you’re done.”

“So, Finn,” Rae said once Thomas had left. “Just because I forgive you doesn’t mean I’m ready to date you.”

Finn nodded in acknowledgment, though he was disappointed.

“You still have to win back my trust,” she added. “That being said, I like you, and I’m rooting for you.”

“I appreciate that,” he said with a smile.

She smiled, too. “All right, well, let’s go tell Thomas he can stop standing outside with his nose pressed against the glass, yeah?”


End file.
